This update covers developments relating to the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly in Mauritania from November 2023 to October 2024.
General
On 29th June 2024, incumbent President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani won the presidential vote. The main opposition leader, human rights campaigner Biram Dah Abeid, said he would not recognise the results, citing alleged irregularities including ballot stuffing, and accusing the electoral commission of giving Ghazouani thousands of extra votes.
Peaceful Assembly
Post-election protests clash with security forces
On 1st July 2024, following the announcement of the provisional results of the presidential elections, demonstrators protested in the cities of Bogué, Kaédi and Nouadhibou as well as some neighbourhoods in the capital Nouakchott. In Kaédi, security forces clashed with demonstrators as protests turned violent. Dozens of people were arrested in the capital and in Nouadhibou. Three people died after being arrested: two died in custody, the third later in hospital. The ministry gave no further details on the circumstances of these deaths.
Police use tear gas against protesters
In February 2024, protests took place over the unfair redistribution of land in R’kiz to Haratines (ethnic group, who are the descendants of enslaved people of sub-Saharan origin) who had worked it for centuries. It is reported that protesters were met with tear gas, resulting in several injuries, including one serious head injury. Several protesters were arrested. In a statement, the French chapter of IRA-Mauritanie condemned the disproportionate use of police force against peaceful demonstrators.
We denounce the violence and brutality that some have been victims of, we denounce the role of the police in preventing or hindering access to care for the most seriously injured, we denounce police custody that lasted much longer than the legal duration of 48 hours, renewable once, we denounce insults, physical abuse, deprivation of food and gratuitous acts of cruelty such as preventing a young mother from feeding her baby.
- IRA France-Mauritania
Police forcefully disperse peaceful protests
On 8th January 2024, police violently dispersed a peaceful student protest organised by the National Union of Mauritanian Students (UNEM) outside Mauritania’s Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Information and Communication Technologies. The students demanded increased access to housing, transportation assistance, and the transparent allocation of scholarships. Police arrested UNEM Secretary-General Mohamed Yahya Al-Mustafa, along with an unspecified number of other students.
On 11th October 2024, defying a ban by the authorities, around 100 parents of schoolchildren, most of them women, staged a sit-in protest outside the offices of the Ministry of National Education to denounce the implementation of the July 2022 Framework Law on the creation of a republican school, with the phasing out of French at primary school. The demonstration gave rise to a chase with the police, who dispersed the crowd every time the organisers formed a rally.
Expression
Blogger arrested and sentenced
On 18th November 2023, the authorities arrested blogger Mohamed Vall Abdallah, after a Facebook post in which he advocated for the overthrow of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. Although he removed the post shortly after he posted it and issued an apology, the blogger was detained for ‘insulting the person of the President of the Republic’. As reported previously on the CIVICUS Monitor, concerns have been raised over the broadly worded 2021 law to protect national sovereignty. Article 2 of the law criminalises anyone who “undermines the authority of the state and its symbols” through the deliberate use of “information technology, digital communication and social communication platforms to undermine the constant values and sacred principles of Islam, national unity, territorial integrity, or to insult the person of the President of the Republic, the flag and the national anthem”. On 7th December 2023, Abdallah was sentenced to a one year suspended sentence and a fine of one million ouguiyas (approximately USD 25,284).
Journalists prevented from covering protests
On 7th May 2024, three reporters were prevented from covering protests staged by doctors in Nouakchott, the Mauritania capital. The reporters were Mohamed Ould Islam, a photographer with the independent news agency Alakhbar, and Saleck Zeid, the director of the investigative news website Taqassy. According to the journalists, who spoke with Reporters without Borders (RSF), they were “manhandled” by police, with their phones and cameras confiscated for several hours before being returned to them.
Journalists must be able to cover demonstrations without fear of being targeted by the police. Their job to report the news must be protected, not obstructed. We have noted several cases of police violence against reporters and press photographers in recent months. This must stop, and the Mauritanian authorities must not only guarantee journalists’ right to work without fear but also treat their protection as an absolute priority.
- Khaled Drareni, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Journalists have been targeted during earlier protests. In March 2024, AlMoustakila news agency reporter Mohamed Amine Abdouni and cameraman Mohamed Amine Othmane were beaten by police and prevented from covering a student protest in Nouakchott. Earlier, in January 2024, police confiscated the phone of Aldjid Mohamed Aïssa, a reporter with Al-Akhbar news agency, when he filmed a previous student protest in Nouakchott.
Media outlets suspended
On 9th March 2024, the Haute Autorité de la Presse et l’Audiovisuel (HAPA), the Mauritanian media regulator, suspended two local news websites, Anbaa info and Taqadoum, for a period of 60 days for “undermining Algeria,” accusing the sites of publishing false information. According to a statement by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Anbaa info was suspended following the publication of several articles deemed by the authorities as “intentionally insulting, openly prejudicing and inflammatory towards the Algerian government.” The site reportedly had received summons in the past for reporting inaccuracies. The MFWA further noted that while the sites may have erred, such a response was “extreme”. It called on the authorities to reverse the suspension.
⚠️ Confirmed: Network traffic data show a major disruption to connectivity in #Mauritania from midnight, with mobile internet restricted amid protests rejecting the results of this weekend's presidential elections 📵📉 pic.twitter.com/QVPXEc6XLy
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) July 2, 2024
Internet shutdown for 22 days
On 1st July 2024, amid protests following the results of the presidential election (see under peaceful assembly), authorities disrupted mobile internet access for 22 days. Internet service providers Mattel and Chinguitel were disrupted until 24th July 2024. The authorities did not communicate the shutdown of mobile data Internet access. Only after the shutdown, the government spokesperson indicated that the measure was taken for security reasons.